Bands – folk

Listen to what the kids are listening to…

Featured2 Comments

It’s fantastic when someone I know wants to share a favourite song with me and, more so, when it’s one of my teenage daughters. I’ve watched (and listened to) their musical meanderings for many years now and I can see how their music preferences reflect their different personalities and sensibilities, or is it the other way round? One of the things I’ve learnt is that they each have their own taste and the joy is in their own discovery of a song or an artist (without me hanging around forcing Radiohead on them). We have been to quite a few gigs together, usually with them in the mosh and me up the back somewhere. The last concert was alt-j and this is the song we all hold tightly to:

One of the things we love are our long roadies to the mountain – usually five or so hours on a Friday night in winter. Our routine is 30 minutes of headphones and 30 of chat. There is tacit agreement to being cocooned in a car with filmic music flooding through our senses as the world whizzes by outside. It’s a given that we will all listen to this song on every road trip (and often I wonder if we’re all listening to it simultaneously):

One of the bands we love is Bombay Bicycle Club. They feature on all our playlists, so we were equally gutted when we found out they’d gone on hiatus. If you’re ever stuck with what to listen to, put one of BBC’s albums on in this order: A Different Kind of Fix; So Long, See You Tomorrow; Flaws; I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose:

So, my girls have allowed me to share their playlists, the songs they love and listen to on a daily basis. Do listen, theres a lot of great music on each of these lists. Perfect for the weekend – and, hallelujah, it is here!! I’m off to see The Chills and Tiny Ruins tomorrow night – might see you there….

The gift of the written gab….

Featured4 Comments

A well written music review is a thing of beauty. A reviewer is a rare bird-dog, half writer and half music boffin, and a good review captures the best parts of both. Reviews are usually bite-sized and easily enjoyed over small moments. In the morning I always turn first (yes, old school newsprint) to the reviews in the newspaper. It’s especially delicious if I’ve been to the gig or listened to the album.  Reviews serve a useful purpose too, guiding us deftly through the assault course of instantly-accessible music. In this way, I think they have assumed a greater influence than previously, providing a welcome steer to people flummoxed by the over-abundance of choice.

I really like this review of S.Carey’s album Hundred Acres (as well as really liking Hundred Acres). Although I don’t agree with the score, the writing (and the album) has some beautiful moments: Where Vernon relishes poetic extravagance, layering his band’s music with numerology and a pine-scented sense of lore, Carey’s appeals to the heart are far less adorned. I don’t think I’ve read a more apt description of Vernon’s music (otherwise known as Bon Iver) as a pine-scented sense of lore. Although Pitchfork is most definitely up its own ass, the contributing writers are brilliant.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/s-carey-hundred-acres/

And then there is Alexis Petridis, the Guardian’s rock and pop critic. I often concur with Petridis’ reviews, so he’s a pretty safe bet when I want to hear something new. Have a read of his review of Young Fathers’ album Cocoa Sugar. I first listened to Cocoa Sugar on  a Monday night after a Hell Day at work. I was knackered. No energy reserves whatsoever. But after a few minutes of listening to this album I was successfully mortifying the kids with my ridiculous dance moves. So good. Cocoa Sugar isn’t a particularly easy listen (we’ve got Carey’s Hundred Acres for that) but it’s a furious, energetic take on the modern world. It feels like today.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/08/young-fathers-cocoa-sugar-review-twisted-sounds-for-a-twisted-world

If you read the review to the end you’ll see a mention of Ali Farka Toure.  Listen to his work. Incredible.

And just because they are so outstanding and I’m drawn to them like the Pied Piper’s children, here’s a review of The National’s Sleep Well Beast.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/07/the-national-sleep-well-beast-review

There’s something about Walk It Back that gets under my skin. I think it’s the cheesy melody at 1.16. Perhaps it’s tapping into an old memory in my head – some 80’s TV theme maybe – it’s so familiar. Can anyone help?

Will leave you with this perfectly-formed little gem from Anderson .Paak

Sunday Morning Listen #1

musicblockblog

I’ve been transfixed lately by a beautiful new album by Virginian couple Lauren and Daniel Goans, otherwise known as Lowland Hum. If you’re in the mood for some Van Morrison or Cat Stevens, play this instead. The music is simple and unadorned with lyrics focussed firmly on the outdoors. As they aptly note in third track In Flight, ‘sometimes a walk is all you need.’

I’m a Little Bit Country….

musicblockblog

Every month Rolling Stone magazine recommends ten new country/Americana artists to hear. It’s a good read and covers the whole spectrum of the massive country genre – from the traditional sounds of Hank Williams/Loretta Lynn to honky-tonk that is pushing right up against other genres, such as funk and soul. The writing has some refreshingly gentle humour in it too: Newcomer Devin Dawson is described as sounding like ‘John Mayer, if he’d grown up listening to Garth Brooks and worried more about other people’s feelings’; and Lucas Hoge as ‘easygoing, optimistic pop-country that won’t upset any delicate constitutions.’ The link is at the bottom of this post.

We’ve got some very talented alt-country/alt-folk artists in the Southern hemisphere too – here are a few I’ve been listening to lately:

Julia Jacklin, from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, is a classically trained singer who produced a debut album last year full of confessional, bittersweet alt-country gems. It doesn’t surprise me that she loves Fiona Apple. She’s in concert in Auckland on May 27th at the Tuning Fork – go see her if you can.

Aldous Harding and Marlon Williams – both Kiwis, both immensely talented singer-songwriters. This creative couple live in the artsy hub of Lyttleton. Williams blew everyone away with his debut album Marlon Williams. He’s got huge stage charisma and a resonant arresting voice. Harding is equally mesmerising. She is incredible in concert, as if her life depends on the delivery of each song.

Another Kiwi to watch is Nadia Reid. Music critics all over the globe are smitten with her music, largely due to her warm, intimate voice. Her latest album ‘Preservation’ is a spare listen, just her voice and an acoustic guitar, but it’s full of interesting utterances that can catch a listener by surprise. Nadia is touring NZ end of March, early April and tickets will be selling fast. Click on this for info http://nadiareid.com. Sing on NZ!

http://www.rollingstone.com/country/lists/10-new-country-artists-you-need-to-know-march-2017-w470963

Woman is an ever fickle and changeable thing…

musicblockblog

….warned Virgil in his poem The Aeneid. Laura Marling, a talented British singer-songwriter with both wisdom and a voice far beyond her 27 years, found the quote hilarious and had part of it tattooed on her thigh: ‘Semper Femina’ in Latin. Over the years the phrase grew into a nine track album. On it Marling sings

‘Oh Nouel, you sit so well
A thousand artists’ muse
But you’ll be anything you choose
Fickle and changeable are you
And long may that continue.’

Semper Femina is Marling’s sixth album and one of her best. The spotlight is on female friendships – relationships that have saved her, others more fractured and complex, all meaningful in some way. You can hear Marling’s influences at play: Joni Mitchell in ‘Nouel’; Nick Drake in ‘The Valley’; Neil Young in ‘Nothing Not Nearly’. But it is the close of the album that has stayed with me – the sound of determined footsteps, a slammed door. These mirror the sounds in the closing act of Henrik Ibsen’s play A Dolls House, as Nora Helmer leaves her husband and children in order to find herself. The year was 1879.

Although Semper Femina doesn’t hurl its message full throttle at the listener, there is certainly a clear statement running through it – that woman can be as fickle and changeable as she wants, as she is free to be.

Simon and Garfunkel for 2016

musicblockblog

The Milk Carton Kids are a folk-duo from California whose music has been likened to Simon and Garfunkel, The Everly Brothers, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. They are known for their gorgeous harmonies, clever guitar work and near-perfect song craft. To date the Milk Carton Kids have released four albums, all to critical acclaim, and bagged a grammy nomination and an Americana Music Award for their efforts.

Can’t get these guys…

Simon and Garfunkel

..out of my head when I listen to this track:

Three of their four albums are on Spotify. You can check them out here:

New music: Father John Misty, Sampha and Aldous Harding

Featured

Dad and I have just returned from the UK, a two week holiday to mark his 90th birthday. One night, over a bottle of sauvignon blanc, I asked him if he wanted to be young again. ‘Of course,’ he said without hesitation, ‘I wish I could go back to being 48.’ I was surprised, being only a couple of years north of that myself and already feeling somewhat ancient. He saw my reaction and smiled. ’48 is the age when the last of you was born’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t want to be alive if you weren’t.’

Early the next morning, as I was rambling around the country lanes in Rye while Dad slept, a song by Father John Misty came on my playlist. This one:

It’s from Misty’s album Pure Comedy which was released in April. I had listened to the album a couple of times but, missing the rich vaudeville feel of his previous albums, I’d left it at that. But this time was different. Whether it was seeing the world through a 90 year old’s failing eyesight or not, the song got to me. And that’s all you need with music isn’t it – to affect you in some way – to make you move or sing along or have a bloody good long sob (the latter in my case as I understood there can never be a magic mountain). The rest of the album followed easily.

Father John Misty, a self-described ‘sarcastic Michael Buble’, is an outlier in the indie music world as he is possibly more fascinating than his music. He was once the drummer for the sleepy Fleet Foxes before he busted out with a rakish performance on Letterman’s Late Show singing ‘Bored in the USA’.

On Pure Comedy he espouses 70 minutes of home truths which could be sanctimonious if the songwriting wasn’t so damn brilliant. He delivers biting, cutting lyrics in a voice so smooth it’s easy to forget he’s ranting about climate change, social media, religion and politics. I had a nagging sense of deja vu all the way until I realised what I was really listening to was a millennial Elton John in the midst of a depressive episode. It’s on stalks in this track:

If Pure Comedy gets under your skin, have a listen to Misty’s previous albums: Fear Fun and I Love You, Honeybear. He has also released a number of songs under his real name, Josh Tillman. They’re exceptionally maudlin. I love them but many don’t.

Another beautiful and thought-provoking album is Sampha’s Process. It’s honest, intensely melodic and moving. You may have already heard Sampha’s husky soulful voice on albums by Solange, Kanye West, Drake, FKA Twigs and Frank Ocean. Now, with his debut album, he has come into his own.

One of many highlights is ‘(No one knows me) like the piano’, a gorgeous ode to his mother who passed away during the recording of the album:

Rounding out this clever trio is Aldous Harding with her second album Party. I can’t stop listening to it and I’m wickedly envious of anyone lucky enough to get tickets to see her this June (http://www.undertheradar.co.nz/news/12568/Aldous-Harding-Announces-Two-Intimate-Shows-At-Aucklands-Historic-Pah-Homestead.utr).

Harding has two voices – one reminiscent of Kate bush or Joanna Newsome, the other PJ Harvey – and each as captivating as the other. What astounds me about this album is both its quiet power and Harding’s deft control as she unfolds her thoughtful lyrics. Party is not something you’ll want to dance to, but it is a mesmerising and addictive listen.